Poland is investigating former employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular department over the visa scandal that was revealed last summer.
The former employees are facing questioning by a parliamentary commission, with the authority aiming to unravel the controversy while focusing its attention on former management, SchengenVisaInfo reports.
Jakub Osajda, who has already been dismissed from his position as director of the legal and compliance management department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, appeared before the committee on Monday.
Former assistant and then Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Piotr Wawezyk, was also questioned on the same day.
The investigation went on on Tuesday, too, with the parliamentary commission questioning the former director of the consular department, Marcin Jakubowski, and his deputy Beata Brzywczy.
Underscoring the important role that the consular department has, committee member Maciej Konieczny stressed that the pressure to grant work visas to those who do not fulfil the criteria might have originated from the department itself.
For this reason, Konieczny said that it is essential to hear what those who executed the directives have to say about the matter.
Commission Aims to Investigate All Cases Where Visas Were Issued Under Questionable Circumstances
As Konieczny revealed, the parliamentary commission wants to investigate all instances where work visas were issued to foreigners under questionable circumstances.
According to him, the investigation as a whole aims to uncover broader patterns of unlawful visa issuance, forsal.pl explains.
Konieczny said that they have focused on a case where consuls resisted the pressure. Nonetheless, now the authorities also want to investigate other cases, particularly those related to Edgar Kobo
We also want to shed light on those examples where pressure worked and visas were issued because, from the information we have, it appears that Edgar Kobos’s business was doing quite well.
Diplomats Said They Were Forced to Issue Work Visas to Indians
Earlier in February, two Polish diplomats working in the country’s Consulate in Mumbai said that the consulate was pressured by the Foreign Ministry to grant visas to a high number of Indians even though they did not meet the necessary criteria.
As the diplomats revealed, they received an “urgent request” from the Foreign Ministry in December of last year to issue visas to 35 Indians.
This group of Indians claimed that they were in the film industry and they were entering Poland for work purposes. However, the diplomats said that they had no knowledge of the field.
In the same month, the diplomats were pressured to grant visas to another 83 Indians. This group also claimed that they were entering Poland to “make movies”.
EU Commission Has Also Decided to Investigate Visa Scandal
The Commission of the European Union has said that it plans to investigate Polish consulates due to visa irregularities.
The EU authority stressed that it will investigate two Polish consulates in China and the Philippines.
The inspection is set to take place during this month. A group of experts has already been created, and they will visit the Polish consulate in Guangzhou and Manila.
